Sand molds are used extensively by foundries for casting metal. Such molds have formed therein the shape to be cast.
The preparation of these molds is well known and involves essentially the use of a flask consisting of an upper cope and a lower drag with a match plate having the desired mold shape thereon. The mold is formed in the flask.
The preparation of the mold involves numerous steps including the assembling of the flask with the matchplate between the cope and drag, the filling of the cope and drag with sand, proper jolting, settling and squeezing of the sand, and removal of the matchplate and flask from the mold.
The flask is moved from a first machine where the mold is formed, to a second machine, where the mold is stripped from the flask. The handling of the flask and the sand mold requires much time and effort to avoid damaging the relatively fragile, but bulky and heavy, sand mold.
The molds, and the flask for producing such molds, are of great weight, so it is necessary to use machines to perform the required steps. For instance, prior art machines have filled, jolted, and settled the sand, and other machines have been used to remove the flask, with the sand therein, from the first machine. Still other machines have been used to strip the flask from the mold.